Apparently the Shippingport reactor had quite a long life and was finally stopped in the late 70's. The utilization of oxidized uranium must have been highly cost effective, seeing as how millions of pellets were created for seed fuel.
I think this film has historical significance. At the time, everyone was a-bomb paranoid as witnessed by the many bomb and fallout titles found on this site. This may have felt like some light at the end of the tunnel for many, despite the prior McCarthy senate hearings and the Cuban Missile Crisis which happened later in 1962.
I don't get much of the technology, but I doubt anyone including the narrator did, either. The units are cool, like "megawatt days per ton" or materials like "Hafnium" - the neutron moderator.
Something to note is that this was mysterious and pioneering science for these researchers. Knowing how corporations are in this country, if it didn't work out, there wouldn't have been a film like this. Westinghouse presents-"Meteor Crater East"!!
As complete as they try to be, they brief over the "fission product poisons"--like WHAT for example?? These are different times.

This film documents in great and technical detail the building of the first nuclear power plant at Shippingport, Pennsylvania. As such, it has lots of historical interest, but it's boring, boring, boring to anyone who's not a nuclear power geek. One slightly fun moment is at the end when the plant is first switched on and we see a series of neon signs in a local city light up. But most of this film will put you right to sleep.
Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ***.

(Full Film) This film which hilights what was needed to generate the world's first commerical nuclear power plant, is VERY slow to anyone without a good deal of physics and math. It's slight interest is gained through it's historical value, but that's about it. The most interesting this is the title credits, which are in english, french, german and RUSSIAN1 Which is interesting, considering the menace the Americans soon would have to face with those pesky russians.